Why did you write a book?

 

My granddaughter asked me, “Why did you write a book?”

I told her people lived in my head. Her look said more than I’m willing to address here. It was the same look I gave when Haley Joel Osment announced in the movie, “The Sixth Sense” . . . “I see dead people.”

Trust me, writing a book is a huge endeavor. Finding time to write a book is near to impossible. My family comes first. Teaching Bible study classes and preparing for them comes second. Then there are friends and volunteer positions and housework and cooking . . .

So why in the world did I undertake such a monumental task as writing a book? The truth?

The characters would not leave me alone!

The year before I actually began writing the book, the characters were already dancing around in my head. I knew them. They were a mixture of people I had met and known. Some I lived next door to, some I worked with and others I observed from afar. I knew the places they went, and the areas of town they lived in. I knew how they talked, and the things rolling around in their heads. It was maddening!

Then one thing happened that drove me to put my hands on the computer and begin writing. On a car trip from Eastern North Carolina to California last year, I honed in like radar to things that caused me to pause. Things I read in the newspaper. Things on TV. I began asking people about them. No one seemed the slightest disturbed. I was appalled.

When we got to Henrietta, Oklahoma, we witnessed a scene out of a horror movie. No one did anything. I mean no one. We all stood wide-eyed, unable to move, and not knowing what to do. It was evil, pure evil. My skin crawls just thinking about it.

Years ago I sat with my grandmother and we’d watch old movies. One of her favorite was “The Russians Are Coming!” We laughed at how naïve the people were – how gullible or stupid they seemed to be. Yeah, I know. It was a comedy. But had it been real we would not be flying the red, white, and blue.

I’m beginning to feel we are becoming anesthetized to bad news. We hear it ad nauseam. Killings. War. Pornography. Child Abuse. Animal Abuse. Political lies. Economic disaster. Cheating. Scheming. Human Trafficking. And the list goes on and on.

No, I’m not a negative person, at all. But I do not want to be caught unaware to the trappings of evil in this world. We have to keep our eyes open and our ears pitched to hear. We cannot delude ourselves that we are protected in America when in actuality we are targeted by some of the most violent groups of killers in the world.

No, I did not write a Jihadist or ISIS book. I wrote about being aware of the evil that is present in our everyday lives. If Jesus talked more about Satan and Hell than heaven, we had best take note.

One particular incident on our trip out to California got me off my duff. The characters won. Cries of Innocence is their story. It is fictional. It is a cry for each of us within our normal day to live victorious in Jesus, but understand we live in a world of sin and evil.